The Legacy of Ruth Prowse

Works of art donated from her private collection

Ruth Prowse (1920-2005) was the director of Gallery Huntly, which was an important venue for visual art culture in Canberra for
more than thirty years. She opened Gallery Huntly at her home in 11 Savige Street, Campbell in 1974, at a time when there were
very few commercial galleries operating in the nation's capital.

Ruth had come to Canberra with her husband Keith Prowse and children in 1959. They had been living on a farm near Wallandbeen,
NSW, and moved when Keith took a job in the Department of Primary Industry. Ruth worked as a nurse at the Canberra Hospital, a
secretary in the British High Commission and at the Australian National University (ANU), and took a degree at the ANU in zoology
and cell biology. She was studying for a PhD when she decided to open a commercial gallery dealing in Australian and international
art. In tandem with selling art Prowse also began to build up an extensive private collection.